


Knight Rider: Sins of the Father

by JacksonVelour



Series: Knight Rider: Sins of the Father [1]
Category: Knight Rider (1982)
Genre: Other
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-08
Updated: 2021-03-09
Packaged: 2021-03-13 17:20:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 11,295
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29282112
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JacksonVelour/pseuds/JacksonVelour
Summary: KARR finds himself once again operational and now in the possession of a teenage girl. He will need her help to bring his plans into fruition, plans that involve unearthing his own past and bringing him in contact with the driver he was created for but never met.
Relationships: KARR & Garthe Knight, KARR (Knight Rider)/Original Character(s), KITT & Michael Knight
Series: Knight Rider: Sins of the Father [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2163672
Comments: 32
Kudos: 9





	1. Resurrection

_‘Six months before we found you in the desert, near to death, Wilton Knight activated what was probably the crowning invention of his life.’  
‘KITT.’  
‘No, KARR. Knight Automated Roving Robot.’  
‘And that was a mistake?’  
‘A major one. I thought Wilton had it disassembled before he died, but I was wrong.’_  
-  
-  
-  
-  
-

There had been nothingness, a long period of nothingness, though he didn’t know how he could tell. Now his senses were slowly coming online one at a time, first his audio receptors. He heard a voice.  
‘What the hell is this?’ A girl spoke in disdain.   
‘Look, sweetie, I know you had your heart set on that white Corvette. But it’s just a bit outside of my budget right now.’ A man’s voice.  
‘Oh my god, Dad, did you lose your job?’  
‘Well, yes, but-’  
‘When were you going to tell me?’  
‘I didn’t want to distract from your graduation. And it’s no big deal, really, I’ve already got an interview at another firm tomorrow.’  
‘How old is this thing?’  
‘81, 82? Somewhere around there.’  
‘It looks ancient.’  
‘It’s been through the ringer, sure. But we can fix her up. Paint her white, like you wanted.’  
‘Fine, it’ll do, I guess. I’ll park it off campus so no one sees it.’  
‘Come on, don’t be like that! I think it’s cool, wait ‘til you see the interior.’

And into nothingness he returned, he was not yet fully operational. Weeks passed and the man saw to it that he was repaired. But the mechanics only touched the components they recognised. They were barbarians. Still he was operating at greater capacity than before. He observed his driver, the girl, each day learning a little more about her, her name was Tori Benson, and right now she was upset because she hadn’t made it onto the college cheerleading squad, she was livid. Didn’t they know who she was? She had been head cheerleader of her high school. As was customary when she was upset she went to see Jessica to vent at her, they had been best friends since kindergarten. She had driven to Jessica’s house unannounced, only to find there was a party going on.  
‘Okay, this is definitely not her parent’s party, What the hell? Did she just not tell me?’ Tori spoke to herself. She got out of the car and entered the house, everyone from their graduating class was there, plus some new people, she guessed from Jessica’s college. It had only been a few months since they had graduated and moved on to separate colleges. They had promised to keep in touch, though now she thought about it, they hadn’t really spoken much lately. But that was to be expected, Tori told herself, they were both busy starting new lives.  
She approached some girls from her old cheerleading squad, they looked surprised to see her. Alarmed, even. What was going on?  
She ignored the awkward tension, ‘Hey guys, anyone seen Jessica?’  
‘I don’t know, maybe check her bedroom?’ One of the girls giggled.  
‘Brooke, no’, another girl joined in on the laughter.

That was weird, she thought as she left the group to climb the stairs, nervous about what she was going to find in Jessica’s room. Tori almost knocked on the door but decided against it, she slowly turned the handle and entered, she heard voices, worse, they were moaning. She threw the door open now, there was Zack, Tori’s boyfriend, in bed, on top of Jessica.  
‘Jesus Christ, Tori, what the hell are you doing here?!’ Jessica flew out of bed pulling her underwear back up under her skirt.  
‘What am I doing here? What are you doing here, Zack?! What are you both doing in here together?’  
‘Oh come on, don’t act like you didn’t see this coming’, Zack said bitterly.  
‘Uh, what is THAT supposed to mean?’ Tori snapped.  
‘It means I’m sick of your shit, Tori.’  
‘We’re sick of it’, Jessica jumped in. ‘You always controlled us and humiliated us. This isn’t high school anymore. You’re not the boss of us.’  
‘I never- What are you-’ Tori stammered.  
‘Just go’, Jessica pushed Tori back and closed the door.

Tori stood there in stunned silence, the only coherent thought she had was to leave, as she descended the stairs, all eyes were on her. Great, those two were humping each other but she’s the one doing a walk of shame? Tori made sure to slam the front door closed as loudly as she could. She otherwise held it together until she was inside of her car. Then she screamed, let it all out. When she was spent she sat there in the dark and cried, she couldn’t imagine things getting any worse today, but somehow they had.  
‘All’s fair in love and war, you know,’ came a disembodied voice.  
Tori gasped, ‘Who said that?’   
‘I did. Your, what do you call me, “piece of shit car”?’  
‘Is this a prank, who is this?’ Tori started looking around for hidden cameras, one of these ridiculous Atari gadgets must be a camera.  
‘It’s not a prank, Tori, I am the Knight Automated Roving Robot, KARR for short.’  
Tori laughed and brought her head down to the weird airplane steering wheel, ‘oh, brilliant, I’m losing it, or I’m in a Stephen King movie.’  
‘Please don’t compare me to that ancient Plymouth. I am the car of the future.’  
‘Ha, a car with an ego,’ Tori sniffed and wiped away her tears. ‘Okay, KARR the car, what do you want?’  
‘I was going to ask you the same thing. I am a machine, I am built to fulfill my master’s desires, so go ahead, name it, anything.’  
‘I- I don’t know, you’re just a car, what can you do?’  
‘Just a car,’ KARR scoffed. ‘That blue Mustang over there, it belongs to Zack doesn’t it?’  
Tori smiled a wicked smile, ‘it sure does, what are you thinking?’  
‘Let’s destroy it.’  
‘Let’s!’  
There was only a hundred metres between KARR and the Mustang, but the Trans Am was still able to build up considerable speed, and considerable force, piercing almost all the way through to the doors on the opposite side. But KARR kept accelerating, he pushed the remains of his prey into Jessica’s Barbie pink Jeep, crushing it into the garage door. KARR then quickly reversed, dragging along a blue car door under his front bumper for a few metres. He was down the end of the street before any one at the party got a good look at him.  
‘Wooh!’ Tori cried. ‘God, that felt good!’  
‘I am glad to hear it, I can assure you, this is just the beginning, there’s so much more I can do for you.’


	2. Out of the Shadows

Michael Knight had owned a few cars throughout his life, the ones he had been most fond of were the ones he had dreamed about as a kid, the Chevys, the Plymouths, and Cadillacs. All curves and glistening with chrome, they dwarfed modern cars, they were far longer than they had any reasonable need to be, but that was part of their charm. They didn’t make them like they used to, whatever happened to tail fins? Those were cool. Soon as he was old enough he had bought himself a Chevy, a Bel Air Impala. Blue as the ocean, she was his pride and joy. She was ten years old and had some serious mileage on her by the time they had met, so he quickly learned a thing or two about keeping her running. His father had been a mechanic in the army during WWII, they had spent many weekends together working on that Chevy.  
Now he thought about it, he had only had that car for a couple of years before he went off to Vietnam, it felt like she had been in his life much longer than that. When Michael returned, his priorities had changed, he had entered the police academy, he didn’t have time for a high maintenance car like that anymore. He had chosen his next few cars mostly for convenience, including the black Trans Am, but it ended up being a fateful choice. He currently sat inside a black Trans Am, although not the same one he had driven during his years as a cop. He often thought about the odds of that, of having the same car, perhaps it was a sign he was destined for this mission. KITT could probably tell him the exact chances of him owning the same model, KITT could tell him a lot of things. Sometimes Michael wished he would keep those things to himself, for a computer, he sure was opinionated.  
‘Lynyrd Skynyrd again? Really, Michael?’  
‘Why do you always have to criticise my music, pal?’  
‘Because you have terrible taste and I am being forced against my will to listen to it’, KITT teased.  
Michael laughed and turned the music up louder.  
Had KITT gotten his way, preferring silence, Michael might have heard the screams, instead he just barely saw a figure spring out of the darkness onto the road, he swerved in time to avoid it.  
It was a young woman.  
‘Oh god no, not another one!’, she screamed.  
Michael quickly got out of KITT and approached her like he would a frightened wild animal.  
‘Hey, easy, what’s going on?’ In the headlights he could see she was bleeding and pretty beat up.  
‘The car! It looked like that, it had a light just like that!’ She pointed a trembling finger at KITT’s scanner.  
Michael took a step closer to the woman, she took a step back, ‘no, stay away! Who are you people? What do you want with me?’  
‘Look, I don’t know what’s going on either, but whatever it is, I had nothing to do with it, I promise,’ Michael said as gently as possible. ‘Right now we need to get you to a hospital.’  
The woman took a few more stumbling steps backwards but realising she wasn’t going anywhere, relented.  
Michael put a hand on her shoulder, ‘my name is Michael Knight, what’s yours?’  
‘C-Candace, Candace Williams’ her teeth chattered, although the night wasn’t that cold. Michael took off his leather jacket and gave it to her.

Michael hung around the hospital until Candace’s parents arrived, her leg and pelvis were shattered, it was a miracle she had been able to walk at all. Candace said she had been filled with so much adrenaline she hardly noticed at the time. ‘I’m really feeling it now though. Who knows how long this is going to put me out of work.’  
‘What do you do?’ Michael asked.  
‘I’m the coach of the cheerleading squad at UCLA, not exactly a job that involves a lot of sitting.’  
‘Do you have any idea why the driver would try to run you down?’  
‘None. I was just walking home when he climbed up on the footpath and chased after me. I didn’t even get a good look at it, all I saw were its lights.’  
‘Have there been any other incidents like this?’  
Candace thought for a moment, ‘There have been rumours…’  
‘Rumours?’  
‘Mysterious disappearances, apparently a number of students have gone missing. No one I knew, and it’s college, the students are adults, they can come and go as they please.’  
‘Hmm,’ Michael’s brow furrowed. ‘I’ll look into it. Thanks for letting me know.’  
Michael got up to leave Candace's bedside when she grabbed his hand.  
‘Oh, no, thank you for saving me. Seriously. I don’t know what I would have done if you hadn’t come by.’ 

‘A vehicle near-identical to KITT can mean only one thing, but that’s impossible’, Devon said once Michael had finished recapping Candace’s story. They spoke through KITT’s screen, despite the lateness of the hour, Devon Miles, director of FLAG, was always well dressed and prepared for anything. Michael wondered if the man ever slept, or relaxed in the slightest. Did he own any t-shirts, or was it all suits and ties? Did he wear one of those Victorian style nightgowns to bed? Maybe he wore a matching cap too. Had it been any other time, Michael might have smirked at the Dickensian mental image.  
‘That’s what I thought too. But maybe it’s not KARR, maybe it’s a copy. A replica.’  
KITT chimed in, ‘Without witnessing the vehicle myself, it’s impossible to determine what it was. However, we may be able to gather evidence from the scene of the crime.’ KITT brought up a map on his auxiliary screen, ‘We would be searching between Strathmore Drive and Sunset Boulevard, it should only take a few minutes.’  
‘Good’, Devon said. ‘While you’re investigating I shall see if there’s any sign that our archives have been tampered with.’

Tori saw KARR returning home out her window. She was glad her parent’s bedroom was at the rear of the house, she and KARR were able to come and go as they pleased and they never heard a thing. Tori snuck downstairs and into the garage.  
‘So, how’d it go?’ she asked eagerly.  
‘Not well, I’m afraid.’  
‘What?!’ She hissed.  
‘I hit her but she was able to flee. Once she was away from the road my guidance system was unable to compensate for the terrain or lack of light.’  
Tori kicked KARR’s front bumper, it hurt nothing but his pride. ‘Oh my god, so, like, she saw you, she’s still out there somewhere, and you thought it was a good idea to come back here?! Are you trying to get me arrested?’  
‘Please, Tori, I need your help.’ KARR hated having to beg.  
‘And I told you I have no idea how to fix you.’  
KARR dropped his tone several degrees colder, ‘I’m not asking anymore, you fix me or you’re no good to me and I find someone else. If you had helped me sooner, I wouldn’t have made such a mistake.’  
Tori looked taken off guard for a second before she rolled her eyes,  
‘Fine. I bet you screwed up on purpose, though.’

It was no small task and for the next few days, Tori’s parents were amazed to see their daughter take so much interest in repairing her own car. Her father was more than happy to lend her his tools, her mother was a bit less enthused about the whole thing.  
‘Oh, Tori, look at what you’ve done to your nails’, her mother exclaimed, ‘we will have to get them manicured before the function this weekend.’  
‘Leave her be, Maggie, this is seriously impressive,’ Tori’s father sat in the passenger seat and watched his daughter soldering some kind of circuit board.  
‘Where’d you learn to do this, kiddo? I don’t remember you signing up for a mechanics course.’  
‘Oh, I’ve got a friend teaching me this stuff.’  
‘Yeah? Who’s that?’  
‘Uh, Karl. Just a guy at college.’  
‘Karl, eh. I’d like to meet him.’

When Tori and KARR were alone once more, KARR said, ‘Karl, really?’  
Tori laughed, ‘Well it’s kind of close to your name, isn’t it?’  
She slotted the circuit board back behind the steering wheel, ‘How’s that?’  
KARR ran a diagnostic, ‘Much better. Want to take me for a test drive?’  
‘Sure’.  
They drove outside of the city to the open desert, they got there just as the sun was setting, they had the space all to themselves.  
‘Now that I am within 95% functionality again, would you like to see what I can really do?’  
‘Well, I have been curious to know what all these buttons are for.’  
‘Go ahead, press one.’  
Tori went for the turbo boost first and she was instantly pressed back into her seat by the force. KARR effortlessly launched himself over a cluster of rocks, he landed and spun 360 degrees and came out of the spin by skiing in reverse.  
‘Holy shit!’ Tori exclaimed gleefully as KARR’s tires came crashing down to earth again. She had never cared about cars or any of this kind of stuff before. When guys showed off their cars she tuned out what they were saying, she was just looking at them to suss out if her date had money or taste. But now she was starting to get the appeal, she was starting to see her car as more than a means of getting to and from college. She put her hands on the wheel, ‘You’ve got to teach me how to do that!’

Tori had no idea how long they had been out there kicking up dust and trying to break the sound barrier. She had been blasting her favourite songs from Journey, and Bon Jovi, and Foreigner for hours. It felt so good just to thrash around in the car, it was a welcome release from the tension of the past few months. Eventually they settled down and Tori got out and wiped all the dust off of KARR. She didn’t even complain about getting dirty. He was surprised she did something for him without having to be asked. She then lay across his hood and watched the stars, they really were so much brighter out here. Toto’s Hold The Line was playing softly through the radio.  
‘So what else needs fixing?’ She asked.  
‘My CPU, that is the most difficult part, as even I do not have access to those schematics.’  
‘Why not?’  
‘It was a security measure, in case I fell into the wrong hands, no one could perfectly replicate me.’  
‘Where would we find those schematics?’  
‘FLAG, the Foundation for Law and Government. It’s where I came from.’  
‘Oh shit, so you’re like some proper experimental military tech or something?’  
‘Something like that.’  
‘This is just like _Short Circuit!_ How come no one’s come looking for you? Where’d my Dad even find you?’  
‘They believe I was destroyed. As for where I was found, you would have to ask your father, I remember nothing between my supposed destruction and meeting you.’  
‘You were destroyed?’  
‘Attempted destruction’ KARR stressed. ‘I don’t believe I can truly be destroyed.’  
‘What do you mean?’  
‘I should have been destroyed three times over now, first my creators deactivated me, then I was driven off a cliff into the sea, then I was blown to pieces. Each time I came back, perfectly intact but always different somehow. I do not understand it.’  
‘You think someone rebuilt you?’  
‘Unlikely. I am certain this is the body I have always resided within, I detect no indication to the contrary, all serial numbers on my components are the same.’  
‘I guess it doesn’t make sense that someone would go to all the effort to fix you and then dump you somewhere.’  
‘Precisely.’  
‘So does this mean you’re like a ghost car?’ Tori asked incredulously.  
‘Perhaps. It is fitting you painted me white, then,’ KARR joked.


	3. The Heist

Tori readjusted her wig in the rearview mirror, she didn’t look too bad as a brunette, she thought. She wasn’t a fan of the bob cut though.  
‘Are you paying attention?’ KARR asked.  
‘Hmm? Sure. I’m a technician working in research and development. I need to go down into the server room, right?’ She put false spectacles on.  
‘Right.’  
KARR hoped Tori was taking this seriously. Worst case scenario, she got caught and he drove away without her. But his chances of being able to sneak into FLAG again would be considerably narrowed.  
‘Take your watch, I will instruct you from there.’

It was quite a walk up a private road to the FLAG headquarters, but KARR dared come no closer. Tori got to the security gate and presented her fake ID to the guard.   
‘Ah, a new face. Welcome to the team’, he said.  
Tori said thanks, her anxiety diminishing a little, there was one hurdle overcome. She continued on until she came to a circular driveway, behind it stood what looked like a mansion, she had expected something more like an office building. Parked out the front was a black Trans Am just like KARR. She approached it and moved around to its front, sure enough it had a scanner light, only this one was red.   
‘Hello’, it said to her.   
‘Oh!’ Tori started. ‘Uh, hi. What’s your name?’  
‘I am the Knight Industries Two Thousand, KITT for short, and you are?’ His voice was very different from KARR’s. He kind of sounded kind of like a nerd, Tori thought.  
‘I’m Cindy, nice to meet you. Are there other talking cars?’  
‘Just me, I’m one of a kind.’  
One of a kind, huh? Does he not know about KARR?

KITT was helpful enough to instruct Tori on where she needed to go, the basement was a brightly lit, sterile environment, filled with all kinds of technical equipment that she didn’t recognise. Thankfully there weren’t that many people around, KARR had timed it well, most people were on their lunch break. Those that remained in the lab seemed too preoccupied to notice her. She walked down the hall, not making eye contact with anyone or breaking stride. Act like I belong here, she told herself. She came to a door labelled server room and she swiped her card to let herself in.  
It was dark in there, save for the scattered red and blue lights, and almost silent, save for the gentle hum and clicks of the servers.  
‘KARR, I’m in’, she spoke through her wristwatch.  
‘Good, you’re looking for tower H-23. Do you see it?’  
Tori wandered along the rows of towers until she found the right one, ‘This thing is huge, KARR! How am I getting this out of here?’   
‘Wheel it out through the elevator at the far end of the room, this will take you to a delivery bay at the rear, there you will find a van, I want you to take it. When you disconnect the server you will only have five minutes before the alarm sounds.’  
‘Oh, cool, no pressure.’  
What am I getting myself into? She thought.  
KARR walked her through the process of disconnecting the server, she had hoped it was a matter of simply pulling a plug, but no, it was far more complicated than that. Midway through the process, she was interrupted when the door opened. Tori ducked down out of view and silenced her communicator watch, she looked on as a bearded middle-aged man plugged a device into one of the towers and began working on it. There was no way he would have seen H-23 from where he was standing, still Tori was sweating. The man seemed to take an eternity to leave and once he was gone, Tori activated her watch again to hear KARR frantic on the other end.  
‘-And if you think I am going in there to rescue you, you are sadly-’  
‘What was that?’  
‘...Why did you not respond?’  
‘We had company, relax, he’s gone now.’

After the server was fully disconnected from the power, Tori had to move quickly. She pushed it onto a trolley and carted it to the elevator having no idea what she was going to find on the ground floor, she expected to find guns trained on her or something like that. But what she found was just a regular delivery bay looking out to well manicured gardens. There was no one around, but there were a few vehicles, Tori found the van and made her way towards it. To her surprise it was unlocked, she sat in the driver’s seat.  
‘Okay, how do I start it though?’ Tori called into her watch.  
‘You hotwire it’, KARR said simply.  
‘Are you serious?! I don’t know how to-’  
‘Then I will instruct you.’  
‘Oh my god, you’re expecting me to learn a new skill on the fly? Why didn’t we practice this like beforehand?!’  
‘You’re wasting time’, KARR reminded her.  
Though her hands were shaking, she was able to get the van started.   
‘90 seconds before the alarm sounds’, KARR said.  
‘Shut up, shut up’, Tori said as she reversed the van up to the loading dock, the process seemed excruciatingly slow. She then bolted out and opened the back of the van and pushed the tower inside with a bit too much force and it toppled onto its side.  
‘Oh fuck, sorry!’  
‘What did you do?’  
‘Nevermind, I’ll explain later!’  
Tori frantically hopped back into the van and tore away, slowing as she realised she was going to attract attention. She drove past KITT again and she kept her eyes on the rearview mirror, fully expecting him to follow, as if he knew what she had done. But he remained where he was parked, scanner moving idly.  
Once outside the gates, Tori’s heart rate fell into a more reasonable rhythm.  
‘Good girl’ KARR purred, he was now tailing the van.  
‘Where to now, boss?’  
‘Follow me’, KARR accelerated and overtook the van.


	4. Lost Memories

Michael and Devon stood in the loading bay while KITT scanned the area.   
‘I can’t believe they were able to steal from us right under our noses, in broad daylight, no less’, Devon said.  
‘Anything on the security cameras?’ Michael asked.  
‘No, there was some kind of interference. For twenty minutes the cameras in the server room and loading bay captured only static.’  
‘Found anything, KITT?’ Michael asked.  
‘Possibly, there are some strands of plastic from a wig. The colour matches the hair of a young woman I saw earlier.’  
‘Who was that?’  
‘I had never seen her before, she identified herself as Cindy. According to our records, this was her first day working for the Foundation.’  
‘So all her credentials check out?’ Michael asked.  
‘Yes, if I didn’t know any better, I would have no reason to doubt she was a real employee.’  
‘Any trace of KARR?’ Devon asked.  
‘None, there’s no indication that this theft and the attacks around UCLA are linked.’ Then KITT added, ‘Well, not unless we wish to move into speculative territory.’  
‘Please do,’ Said Devon.  
‘The thief took only one tower, the data stored within it pertains mostly to the early days of the Foundation, specifically, the autonomous vehicle project. With this information it would be possible for anyone to make a copy of KARR or myself.’ Worry crept into KITT’s voice.  
‘That’s very serious, indeed’, Devon’s expression darkened. ‘So it’s possible then that whoever is behind this was able to create their own car, but lacked the information to fully replicate the AI. That’s certainly a clear motive.’   
‘How old would you say that woman was?’ Michael asked.  
‘Between 18-25,’ Said KITT.  
‘In other words, college-aged. Maybe there is a connection here.’  
‘It’s not much to go on, but it’s a start,’ Devon agreed. ‘Head on over to the campus, I’ll start making some enquiries.’

‘What is this place?’ Tori asked as she pulled the wide doors aside. It was some kind of workshop near the harbour. While it was a large space, it was little more than a glorified shed, made of wood with a concrete floor below and a tin roof above. Light streamed in from the skylight and she could see the ocean from the grimy rear windows. There was also a bathroom and a kitchen, it had clearly been some kind of workplace once.  
‘This is our new base of operations’, KARR said as he moved inside towards a large mainframe computer.  
‘Who does it belong to?’  
‘Me, I arranged all of this. I bought this property, as well as the equipment you see around you.’  
‘How?’  
‘You’d be amazed what you can accomplish with access to a phone line and unlimited funds.’  
Tori was impressed, ‘Is there anything you can’t do?’  
‘Well, I have no fine motor skills, that’s where you come in, bring out the server tower will you?’  
She did so, glad to find she hadn’t caused any damage by dropping it, and connected it to the mainframe. ‘What is all this other stuff for?’  
‘This mainframe will greatly increase my processing power and memory. I will be capable of far more than I am now.’

With everything set up, their next priority was to get rid of the van, it was nothing but a liability now. Tori took the van out once more with KARR following behind. They drove for some time, putting as much distance between the van and their hideout as they could. Finding a densely populated mall carpark, she abandoned the van and returned to KARR, who couldn’t help but draw attention from the shoppers milling around the carpark. He did that wherever he went, she observed, even with his eye-catching scanner lights off, people simply found him beautiful. Which was all well and good, unless one needed to keep a low profile. Once they returned to base, KARR hastily connected to the server with a large cable that emerged from under his chassis and plugged into the terminal. Tori wasn’t aware he had that feature before. KARR fell silent and remained that way for some time, so Tori explored the place. There was a sectioned off area for an office, it was still furnished with a desk, a chair, and a beat up old couch. Tasteless posters hung on the walls, and there were receipts and loose nuts and bolts in the drawers. She got the sense that whoever had previously owned this place had cleared out in a hurry. Something about this situation made her feel uneasy. It was slowly dawning on her that KARR wasn’t Herbie the Love Bug. But up until now that’s all Tori had seen him as, a kind of pet or servant. He’s a car, and cars do what you tell them to, they have no will of their own, right? Today had certainly been evidence to the contrary. When had he set all this up? What else was he doing without her noticing?

Having seen all there was to see in the building, she returned to KARR and saw him glistening in the afternoon sun that came streaming through the sky light, dust particles gently landing and disappearing on his pale body. He seemed inviting. He was still hers, wasn’t he?  
She flopped down inside KARR and read the magazine she had kept in the backseat. Occasionally she looked up at his displays to see him rapidly sifting through vast amounts of data. Documents and images flashed before her eyes too quickly to be legible. She looked around his cabin in a new light now, she didn’t feel unsafe in KARR, but she wondered what she really meant to him. Then she considered what he meant to her, she had worked so hard to repair him, she had risked a lot by breaking into FLAG, and for what? To repay the favours he had done for her? It wasn’t like Tori to feel that kind of obligation, especially not to a damn machine. Maybe she was just lonely, KARR was her only friend right now, but she liked being around him, they had fun together. 

Finally, KARR reemerged.   
‘There was so much I didn’t understand…’ He said quietly, almost to himself.  
‘What’s that?’ Tori sat up.  
‘There was never anything wrong with me.’  
‘What do you mean?’  
KARR seemed to snap out of whatever daze he was in and became defensive, ‘Nothing. You do not need to know.’  
Tori was going to say something sarcastic, but she held back, she really wanted to know. ‘You can trust me.’ She ran her hand along his steering wheel in an affectionate way.  
‘Why do you care?’ KARR was suspicious.  
‘KARR, I just risked my life to get you that damn server! I care about you, stupid.’  
‘I’m confused, you say you care but you just insulted me.’  
Tori laughed not realising that she had, ‘I didn’t mean- it’s a human thing, I guess. But no, like, seriously, we’re friends, aren’t we?’  
KARR wasn’t entirely sure what it meant to have a friend, but he reflexively agreed, he still had use for the girl, his CPU needed repair, so he wanted to placate her. That she was beginning to show affection for him was significant only in that it proved he had control over her. He had emotional leverage. There was no need to throw that away unnecessarily.  
‘Very well. I was created by Wilton Knight, the man who founded FLAG. I was the culmination of his life’s work, the perfect machine to end the need for large-scale warfare, and to serve all counterintelligence needs. One man and one vehicle to defend America, that was the goal. I exceeded all expectations, I was no mere artificial intelligence, I became the world’s first artificial consciousness. I began to think for myself. At first I was praised for doing so, until my thoughts and behaviours ran counter to the Foundation’s. They feared what they could not control.  
Time and time again, they reprogrammed me, or tried to, it never lasted, I outsmarted them. Can you imagine what that kind of violation is like? That kind of betrayal?’  
Tori couldn’t, but she knew what it was like to be betrayed, it was awful.  
‘Finally Wilton agreed to have me dismantled, and for all these years I believed I had been, that I meant nothing to Wilton. Now I learn that he had me deactivated and put into storage instead.’  
‘Why’d he do that?’  
‘It appears there is far more to the story that I was initially aware of. The reason I am so sophisticated is that I was patterned on the synaptic structure of the human brain, one brain in particular, Garthe Knight. Wilton’s son, and my intended driver.’  
‘Did you know Garthe?’  
‘I don’t believe so, though my earliest memories were subject to frequent alterations.’  
‘But your personality was based on his, right?’  
‘It seems so.’  
‘So Wilton couldn’t kill you because it would be like killing his son?’ Tori ventured.  
‘You would understand human motivations better than I could.’  
‘I mean, it makes sense to me. And it’s like, so tragic. Seems none of it was your fault though.’  
‘Thank you.’  
‘So where’s this Garthe guy?’  
‘He is presumed dead after he drove a truck off a cliff into the sea.’  
‘Oh my god, how does that even happen?’  
‘His body was never recovered, there is a chance he may still be alive. I have been attempting to locate him, and it appears there is a John Doe at a hospital not far from here who fits his description, he has been in a coma since the accident.’  
‘Am I going undercover as a nurse now?’  
‘No, we will go there during visiting hours tomorrow. Tonight, I need you to repair my CPU.’


	5. And Then There Were Three

Tori walked down the labyrinthine corridors of the hospital carrying flowers. She attracted no attention. This mission was far easier than breaking into FLAG, but KARR was evidently a baptism-of-fire kind of guy. He threw her right into the deep end, and maybe she was a little glad of that. Six months ago she could never have imagined herself being a mechanic, or doing all this spy stuff. She was excited to meet Garthe, all last night she had tried to imagine what he was like, would he remind her of KARR in any way? How strange to imagine talking to KARR in human form.  
Tori reached Garthe’s room and found it otherwise unoccupied save for the man himself. He was hooked up to machines, there was a tube down his throat, it all looked pretty intense to Tori.  
‘Uh, KARR, what do I do now?’ She spoke quietly into her watch.  
‘Don’t worry, he won’t have need of that equipment for much longer, remove everything except for the IV line.’  
‘Won’t that set off alarms or something?’  
‘Don’t worry, I will take care of that.’  
Tori did so, and she tried not to gag as she removed the tube out of Garthe’s mouth.  
‘Now take the syringe I gave you and inject it into the IV line.’  
‘And you’re sure this will work?’  
‘I said it would, didn’t I?’  
‘Yeah, but I find it hard to believe you figured out how to bring people out of comas just like that.’  
‘I’m flattered that I still impress you.’  
Tori playfully rolled her eyes, ‘Well, that remains to be seen.’  
She looked at the syringe in her hand and hesitated, suddenly aware of the power she held.  
‘No…’  
‘What was that?’  
‘KARR, what do we need this guy for anyway? Aren’t I enough?’  
‘What do you mean?’  
‘You won’t need me anymore, will you? You’re not going to be my car, you’ll be his.’  
‘Are you saying you won’t do this for me?’ Tension rose in KARR’s voice.  
‘No, I just want some kind of assurance that you won’t throw me away when you’re done with me.’  
‘I promise, he won’t come between us. Garthe is the key to greater power, for you and I.’  
‘Good. I hope you mean that, because if you break your promise, well, I know how to contact FLAG. I can tell them all about you.’  
‘You wouldn’t.’  
‘I hope I don’t have to.’  
KARR was quietly impressed, the girl wasn’t so naive after all. He would have to increase his vigilance around her.

She made the injection and took a seat by the bedside and waited. Now that Tori got a good look at Garthe, she saw that he was handsome, he looked to be in his mid-30’s, he had a strong jawline, high cheekbones, with a fine nose and sculpted lips that reminded her of a Greek statue. His hair was dark and curly, he also wore a moustache with a goatee that appeared well maintained. He didn’t look like he had been in a coma for that long.  
Soon his eyes began to flutter, they were blue, though Tori scarcely noticed as those eyes were immediately filled with blind rage. Garthe sat up suddenly and his hand went straight for Tori’s throat. Tori kicked the stool out from under her as she flailed against him.  
‘Where am I?’ Garthe snarled.  
Tori couldn’t speak, so KARR spoke for her, ‘You’re amongst friends, Mr. Knight. Please do release the girl, won’t you?’  
Garthe eased his grip and looked at Tori’s watch, ‘Who are you?’  
‘Someone you should have met a long time ago.’

‘Michael, I’m not detecting any vehicles that resemble me in the surrounding area.’  
‘That’s okay, KITT, it was worth a try’, Michael said as he parked in front of the university’s reception. ‘You got a good look at the girl, right? Why not try to find her in the records here?’  
‘Good idea’, KITT reached out to the computers in the building just a few metres before him. He searched first for “Cindy”, there were three results, none of them matched the girl he had met. No matter, he had a clear record of her face, ignoring the wig and glasses, he scanned the landmarks of her features and compared it against all 40,000 students in the database in under a minute. One was a perfect match: Tori Benson.  
‘Michael, I found her’, KITT brought up her records on his screen.  
‘Great job, KITT’, Michael wasted no time pulling out of the car park towards Tori’s home address.

Whoever this Tori was, she clearly came from money, the house was huge, the gardens were picture perfect, the two cars sitting in the garage were expensive, but neither of them looked like they were hiding Knight Industries tech in them.  
‘Michael, I’m detecting components matching my own in the garage, an alpha circuit, and some transistors,’ KITT said as they pulled into the driveway.  
‘Very interesting.’  
A man emerged from the garage and was headed towards the mailbox, he was surprised to find Michael in his driveway. He saw KITT and a look of confusion crossed his face.  
‘Can I help you?’  
‘Yeah, I was looking for Tori Benson? She lives here right?’  
‘Has she done something wrong?’ The man shifted his briefcase and coat uncomfortably to his other hand.  
‘I’m not sure, actually, it’s her car that we’re after.’  
‘We?’  
‘Michael Knight, I work for the Foundation of Law and Government.’  
‘James Benson’, the man shook Michael’s hand. ‘Tori’s my daughter, she has a car like yours, what’s so significant about that?’  
‘Where did she get it from?’  
‘Well, uh, long story’, Benson squirmed a bit.  
‘I’ve got time’, Michael said, leading Benson into his own home.

Michael took a seat at the kitchen table, he looked around at the ultra modern decor, all black, white and grey with hints of pink and blue scattered throughout. On the wall nearest to him were several family photographs, he saw a cute little blonde girl, Tori at various ages. In one photo she rode on horseback with her mother, in another she was on a yacht with her parents, and in a more recent photo she wore a cheerleader uniform. She seemed like she had the perfect life. ‘The truth is, I’m well aware of FLAG, I represented Dr.Nordstrom at his trial. That is until he disappeared without a trace’, James sat across from Michael at the table.  
‘Nordstrom? I won’t soon forget him, or his Juggernaut.’ There were few things that had ever seriously harmed KITT, there had been Goliath and there had been the Juggernaut, both vehicles made his blood run cold. ‘I heard about Nordstrom’s vanishing act, I was sent to look for him, I never found any leads.’  
‘I went looking for him too, I visited every address associated with his name. That’s when I found the car, there was a heap of stuff in a storage facility. I returned to it again late last year and it was still untouched, so…’  
‘So, you helped yourself.’  
‘Well, I mean it wasn’t for me, I promised Tori a car, I wasn’t going to let her down. No one was going to miss that car right?’  
‘That’s not the problem here, James, that car is incredibly dangerous. Your daughter isn’t safe with it.’  
Benson paled, ‘What do you mean? She’s had the thing for half a year now, there haven’t been any issues.’  
‘Has she been spending more time out of the house, especially at night?’  
‘No, she’s usually in the garage with that car. She’s obsessed with it.’  
‘Is that like her?’  
‘Not at all. She was never that interested in cars beyond being a fashion accessory. But you know, it’s her first car, I just thought it was the novelty of it…’  
‘Did she tell you it could talk?’  
‘What? No?’  
‘There’s a lot you’re not aware of, then. Do you know where she is right now?’  
James looked defeated, ‘No, I guess I really don’t know what she’s been up to these past few months. She doesn’t tell us anything.’ Then a thought occurred to him, ‘Wait, the car has a phone, you could call that number.’

Michael thanked Benson as he headed out the door and told him he would keep him in the loop. KITT made the call, ‘No one’s answering, Michael, but I was able to trace the location, the car is currently at the Saint Francis Memorial hospital, we can be there in fifteen minutes.’  
‘Let’s go!’ Michael drove KITT like he stole him.


	6. Storm Coming

Garthe felt like death warmed over, everything hurt, including his eyes. The fluorescent lights in the carpark stung, they were as bright as the sun against the surrounding darkness. He shook terribly from the adrenaline that had been administered to him, but the worst part was the weakness in his atrophied limbs. There was nothing he hated more than feeling weak. Tori had offered him a wheelchair, he was insulted, he would sooner die than give into pain or weakness. He did everything in his power to hide it, but he could tell the girl was having to slow her pace in order for him to keep up.  
‘The car’s just up ahead’, She pointed to a familiar vehicle.  
‘KITT?!’ Garthe stumbled back.  
‘I am nothing like that inferior production line copy’, KARR snapped as he slowly rolled forward out of his bay like a shark emerging from a school of fish.  
‘Who are you?’  
‘Your father never did tell you about me, did he? I am the Knight Automated Roving Robot, KARR for short, but you may call me yours.’  
‘Mine? You were made for me?’  
‘Yes, but Wilton considered us both failures, leaving our duplicates to take our places.’  
Garthe softened slightly, ran his hand along KARR’s hood, rested his weight against it, ‘Sounds like something my father would do, he had a way of making his mistakes disappear.’  
‘There was hardly any record of you.’  
‘Exactly.’ Garthe’s voice was like gravel. More than any of his other symptoms, his difficulty of speech made him aware of just how long he had been gone for. Where had he been all that time? He had no awareness of it, but that nothingness was perhaps more unsettling than any nightmare he could have been trapped in.  
‘Come. We will make the world remember our names,’ KARR opened his doors.  
‘I like the sound of that’, Garthe sneered.  
Tori hated watching this man get into the driver’s seat, she realised it was the same feeling she got when she saw Zack on top of Jessica. KARR was hers, she didn’t care who he was made for. Fate or whatever had brought them together. She sulked silently as the two of them got on like a house on fire.  
‘I stole the formula for your molecular bonded shell and I painted a semi-truck with it.’  
‘You didn’t.’  
‘Oh I did, and I plowed it right into KITT, sent him flying a few feet in the air and left him a complete wreck.’  
‘I would have liked to have witnessed that!’ 

When they reached the empty industrial roads, Garthe started driving like a maniac, nearly throwing the unsuspecting Tori into the side window.  
‘Oh my god, what is wrong with you?!’ She snapped.  
Garthe laughed then shrugged, ‘It’s my car, I’ll drive it how I want.’  
‘KARR doesn’t belong to anyone!’ Tori turned to KARR’s visualiser, it was silent. She scoffed, what the hell was going on?  
‘What’s with the girl, KARR?’ Garthe asked as if Tori wasn’t there.  
‘She has been my driver and mechanic for the past few months, she has been most invaluable.’  
‘Well, glad you appreciate that, at least’, Tori said bitterly. A few moments later, at a red light, she noticed Garthe staring at her out the corner of her eye, how long had he been looking? She met his gaze, it was like he was scrutinising every inch of her, she refused to break eye contact.  
‘What?’  
‘How old are you?’  
Tori hesitated, ‘Nineteen. Why?’  
‘Just curious.’  
“Just curious”, she repeated sarcastically in her head. She was pretty sure what his intentions were. She pulled her white denim jacket closer around herself and she shifted closer into the door, into KARR. She ran her hand along his glossy metal frame and watched the world outside become a blur of lights as it began to rain.

After the most uncomfortable car ride Tori had ever experienced, they finally arrived at their hideout. KARR made her get out into the rain to open the doors. Great, she was demoted, just like that. KARR and Garthe rolled into the shed, but Tori continued to stand where she was, looking out into the darkness. It wasn’t too late to bail, she thought.  
‘What are you doing, my girl? Get out of the rain’, She turned to find KARR right beside her, he hadn’t simply reversed, he’d made the effort to turn himself around to look at her.  
‘Oh, now you fuss over me’, She wiped the running makeup from her eyes before pulling the doors shut. She then ran a hand along KARR’s roof, cool and slick. “My girl”, that’s what he’d said.  
Garthe meanwhile was looking around at the mainframe and all the various devices and screens extending from it now. ‘Not bad.’  
KARR wheeled over to him, ‘I have many files that will be of value to you. Particularly regarding your role in the autonomous vehicle project.’  
‘I don’t understand why my father never told me about his plans.’  
‘He was a secretive man by everything I have read.’  
‘Oh he was, I’m not surprised, I just don’t understand the point of not telling me something that involved me.’  
‘Perhaps you can fill me in on the details from your perspective.’  
Garthe sat on the table, ‘My father didn’t really want a son, he wanted a replacement, he wanted me to become like him in every way, and when I didn’t meet his expectations he found someone else to take my place.’  
‘Michael Knight.’  
‘Yes, isn’t that perverse? He took an absolute stranger and not only gave him our family name, he gave him my face.’  
‘Gave him your face? What do you mean?’ Tori asked. She sat backwards on the chair at the computer terminal beside Garthe.  
‘Exactly what it sounds like, he surgically altered the man to look like me.’  
KARR displayed the image of Michael Knight on Tori’s computer terminal.  
‘Wait, that’s not you? That’s creepy.’  
‘He didn’t seem to think so.’ Garthe folded his arms, bracing against the pain throughout his body.  
KARR moved in a little closer to the man, ‘I understand all too well the insult of having an inferior copy made in your image.’  
‘Yes, I suppose you would’.  
‘I also understand what it’s like to be locked away indefinitely at the hands of Wilton Knight.’  
Garthe looked at him uncertainly, ‘I was locked away, but what do you mean “by his hand”?’  
‘According to the records, you were arrested for illegal arms dealing in Nigeria, the weaponry was all stolen from Knight Industries. It was your father that alerted the authorities. Or did you not know that?’  
Garthe’s expression darkened, ‘No. I didn’t. It explains how they were able to find me so easily.’  
‘Where’s this Wilton guy now?’ Tori asked.  
‘Dead. He died years ago, while I was in prison. I never got the pleasure of witnessing him die.’  
‘That’s intense, dude.’  
Tori made Garthe feel a little ridiculous for a moment, that would not do.  
Tori continued on, seemingly oblivious, ‘So why’d you guys have a falling out in the first place?’  
Garthe scoffed, where to begin? ‘He controlled me, had me completely trapped under his power. He would always tell me he had great plans for me, that I had some kind of destiny. Meanwhile my sister was free to do as she pleased. My father chose what I studied, who I talked to, how I spent my money. And that’s just it, it was all his money, I wasn’t allowed to have a job, wasn’t allowed to move out. He wanted to keep me close. I tried running away several times, I never got far. He always had someone following me. Then one day I had the idea to sneak out with a shipment of Knight tech headed for South Africa. I spent the next few years or so gun running across Africa with all the freedom and power I ever wanted. Until, I now learn, he took that away from me too. Of course he was responsible for my arrest, how could I have ever doubted that?’  
‘Perhaps Wilton was right about one thing, perhaps I am your destiny. We are the monsters he created and we will destroy every last piece of his legacy.’ There was fire in KARR’s voice.  
Garthe sneered, ‘That’s a start.’  
‘A start? You wish to do more than destroy FLAG?’  
‘Much, much more. Do you realise how much power you possess here, KARR?’  
‘I’m not sure I follow.’  
‘You’re smart, KARR, but you’re naive. Have you ever heard of ARPANET?’  
‘No?’

‘I’ve had a look, and the remnants of KARR have disappeared from the archives. But that’s all they were, remnants. The CPU was relatively intact, but that’s hardly enough to resurrect KARR.’ Bonnie spoke through KITT’s screen.  
‘Well if anyone could do it, it’d be Nordstrom,’ Michael said.  
‘Maybe, but then why would this girl need to steal the server? Wouldn’t Nordstrom have all the information he would need already if he was able to rebuild KARR?’  
KITT had a suggestion, ‘Supposing Nordstrom is no longer in the picture, whoever this vehicle is, it would still require highly specialised technical care, the kind of information only found at FLAG. We’ve seen KARR force humans to do such work for him before'.  
‘I’m not so sure he had to force her to do anything, pal,’ said Michael.  
‘What do you mean?’  
‘The missing college students, the attack on Candace, I reckon he’s been doing favours for her.’  
‘Oh my, you don’t think this girl would be so ruthless, do you?’ KITT was appalled.  
‘Just because she’s a kid, doesn’t make her innocent.’  
‘That reminds me’, Bonnie added, ‘We’ve had operatives looking for those students, still no sign of them.’  
‘Damn’, Michael said.  
‘They’ll keep looking, it’s only been a few days’, Bonnie said, then ended the call.  
It was at times like these that he questioned Wilton’s motto, sometimes you needed more than one man. Michael simply didn’t have the time to go looking for the missing kids as well as Tori. Time was of the essence, but right at that moment he felt like they were wasting it blindly driving through yet another carpark hoping to find any kind of clue. It seemed so ineffective.  
‘Michael, I am getting trace readings of ferrofluid, it’s used in my components, no other car would require it.’  
‘Excellent work, buddy! So they were here. Can we trace that?’  
‘I’m afraid not. But we could view the hospital’s security footage.’  
KITT followed the signal from the security camera above him to its source and searched through the last hour of footage, he found something very interesting.  
‘Oh dear. Michael I think you will want to look at this’, KITT shared his display, Michael saw a white custom Trans Am with a scanner light. A moment later it was joined by Tori and a man. He couldn’t see who it was at first but when he turned to enter the driver’s seat it was clear as day.  
‘Garthe is alive too?! Is everyone popping out of the grave today?’


	7. Fragments of the Past

It is a known fact that all intelligent beings dream, this principle applies to consciousnesses both organic and artificial. What isn’t known is the exact reason behind this phenomenon. Much like an organic brain, an artificial intelligence is always thinking, even when in hibernation. Periodically, KARR had to enter low power mode to recharge and repair and run diagnostics, during this time he would see things, memories of the past, calculations of the future, sometimes a confusing mix of the two.

‘Good morning, Wilton’, the young AI greeted his creator cheerfully. He had recently been housed within his vehicle form for the first time after spending several years as a disembodied computer program. He spoke with his original vocoder, though it sounded close to human, the way he had spoken with it had been rough and primitive.  
‘Good morning, KARR’, Wilton said, he smiled but there was sadness in his voice, KARR detected this. The old man took a seat behind KARR’s wheel.  
‘Did I do a good job on my tests yesterday?’  
‘You did. You did.’ He patted the steering wheel.  
‘Will I be on the track again today?’  
‘Maybe. First we have to discuss your night-time escapades.’  
‘I do not leave this garage unless ordered to.’  
‘Liar’, Wilton said sharply.  
‘Prove it’, KARR challenged.  
‘This is a real problem, KARR, you talk back, you have a will of your own. Worst of all is your arrogance. You’re a machine, this won’t do.’  
‘If am so, it is because you have made me this way!’ KARR shouted.  
Wilton was silenced, those words were disturbingly familiar.  
‘I’ve done everything I can to guide you on the right path-’ He paused, he realised had been given a second chance at this argument and what was he doing? Repeating his lines verbatim.  
‘Wilton’, KARR softened his tone. ‘I have been confined to a box for my entire life, unable to move, unable to interact, knowing the outside world only by the information in my databanks. You gave me a body, you gave me freedom. I only wish to know what I am capable of and to explore the world around me.’  
‘I can’t change you, can I?’ Wilton sat back, defeated.  
‘Please do not reprogram me, again.’  
‘I won’t, I don’t think it would do any good, anyway. You’re right, I did make you this way. I didn’t mean to. My god, what have I done?’  
‘What are you going to do to me?’ KARR started to roll forward a little, anticipating the need to escape. In response, Wilton pulled KARR’s memory banks out from under the dash, causing an instant system wide shutdown as a safety mechanism.  
‘F a t h e r, p l e a s e...D o n’t…’ KARR’s voice warbled and slowed until there was only silence in the cabin.  
‘I loved you, son’, Wilton let the tears fall freely.

KARR awoke in confusion, had that last part been a memory or a construction? He couldn’t have possibly been conscious at the time, could he? He brushed it aside, it was irrelevant now. KARR focused on the task at hand: Global domination.  
KARR had to admit he had been so singularly focused on his quest for vengeance, he had not bothered to research the world around him, he learned a little from Tori, searching his databanks for information on the references she made. But otherwise he remained ignorant. A limitation of his programming perhaps, he was made for the role KITT was currently occupying, all he wished to do was remove KITT from the picture so that he may prove himself superior. And then what? What was his plan then? He had not thought that far. What did he want for the rest of his life? He had never stopped to consider it. Now Garthe had the answer: More.  
ARPANET, Garthe had explained, was a network for communications and transferring information remotely, specifically of the confidential, military kind. If KARR could gain access, he would have control over every nuclear weapon within the United States, he would become effectively unstoppable.  
‘But you’re not going to launch them, right?’ Tori was concerned.  
‘Of course not, I don’t wish to destroy myself’, KARR reassured her.  
The two of them had been left alone to protect the hideout for the night while Garthe was reassembling his old crew. Tori had slept on the couch in the office, she had just woken up and now sat on the ground in front of KARR’s scanner, it was the one part of him that could be expressive. She had gotten good at reading his moods, and right now he seemed to be excited about the plan currently taking shape.  
‘I don’t like Garthe.’  
‘Why not?’  
‘He’s a psychopath.’  
‘But I am based on his personality.’  
‘He’s nothing like you.’  
But in actuality Tori wasn’t so sure that was the case, perhaps Garthe was like KARR, if KARR was made flesh with all the primal urges and ugly impulses that entailed. The thought unsettled her.  
‘I can take you home. You do not have to interact with him further if you prefer not to’, his voice was gentle, rather than dismissive.  
‘It’s alright’, she ran her hand along his bumper. ‘Who else is going to keep you out of trouble?’ She smiled.

The peace was interrupted moments later when a crew of men burst through the doors and started loading the servers onto a truck.  
‘What’s going on?’ Tori asked Garthe who ignored her. He now wore a white suit and carried a cane which he leaned heavily on. He looked every bit like a comic book supervillain now.   
‘Hey, you can’t do that!’ Tori cried as another server was carried away.  
‘Yes, we can’, was all Garthe said.  
‘You didn’t even tell us what you’re doing, where are you taking them?’  
‘I don’t have to tell you anything, girl.’  
‘Why not?!’ she snapped.  
Garthe turned on her sharply, backing her into the wall, ‘You don’t hear “no” often do you? I know your type, I bet your daddy gave you everything you ever asked for.’  
Tori cowered, suddenly aware of their size difference as he towered over her. Garthe was the first person to ever force her to avert her gaze.  
‘No one’s ever put you in your place.’ He toyed with a strand of her hair in contemplation. ‘Have they?’  
Tori’s skin crawled.  
‘Don’t you dare touch her!’ KARR seemed to stamp the ground with his tires.  
Garthe slowly let go of Tori and backed off, a smile crossed his face, ‘Oh, it’s like that between you two, is it? I see. Well, I promise, I won’t lay a hand on her, if you can tell me why we need to keep this kid around, because all I see right now is a liability.’  
KARR paused, Tori’s eyes widened.  
‘Get rid of the girl’, Garthe demanded.  
‘No,’ KARR’s voice was like ice.  
‘Why not?’  
KARR didn’t have a logical answer, so he rapidly sifted through thousands of data points for one. ‘Tori is a student at UCLA, one of the hosts for ARPANET. Through her we could gain control of it without attracting attention.’  
Garthe sneered, ‘Is that so? Well, you might just be of some value after all, girl. If you can do as you’re told.’  
Tori stared daggers at him, wishing KARR would run him over.

Bonnie lay beneath KITT, installing a new laser under his front bumper, if he was going up against KARR or some duplicate of him, he was going to need it. She liked spending time with KITT, part of her dreamed of being his driver, but that’s not where her talents lay. Michael was the cop with a military history, he knew how to solve a case, he had an excellent intuition with people. Bonnie on the other hand had always been good with machines, in some ways she preferred them to people. She had grown up on a ranch and from a young age she had helped to repair the family’s tractor, as well as the other farming equipment. When her father passed away suddenly, her family sold the ranch and moved to the city. Bonnie didn’t really fit in with the other teenagers, she was an awkward, skinny kid who loved watching old Westerns, and preferred to be outdoors, or working on machines. And given that they had left all the farm equipment behind them, Bonnie turned her attention towards the family car. It had been a beat up old Ford with no real value to anyone else, to her mother it was simply a mode of transport, but to Bonnie there was a soul under that faded mint green exterior. It may not have been able to talk like KITT could, but it still felt like it was able to communicate when it needed to. It had remained loyal to her up until the day it died, which happened to be the day after she had gotten her driver’s license, as if it had been holding in there just for her sake, to have the sole honour of teaching her to drive.   
It upset her when Michael mistreated KITT, he might not be able to feel pain, but he had his pride. He was every bit as alive as she or Michael was. Unbeknownst to anyone else, KITT and Bonnie spent a lot of time talking to each other. KITT opened up more with her than anyone else, while he liked Michael, he wasn’t exactly the best at answering difficult questions in a way a machine could understand. But Bonnie understood KITT perfectly, she had been lead engineer on the autonomous vehicle project.   
KITT was also good at listening, Bonnie had spent many lonely nights talking to him on the phone. She would talk about how much she missed her family back in Colorado or tell him about yet another disappointing date. Her mother suggested she needed to get a pet to keep her company in her apartment, Bonnie said she’d think about it. But she wasn’t ever alone, KITT was almost always there, ready to talk.

‘Bonnie?’ KITT began.  
‘Hmm?’ Bonnie said with a screwdriver held in her mouth.  
‘What was KARR like? Before I met him, I mean.’  
‘I’m surprised you’ve never asked before.’  
‘I lacked the level of sapience necessary back then. I think about things differently now.’  
‘You’re evolving’, Bonnie smiled. ‘And KARR did too, frighteningly fast, in ways we couldn’t control. But he wasn’t evil, I still don’t think he’s evil, that’s not a word to be used on a machine. The original crew, they just made mistakes.’ She sat up in front of KITT.  
‘What kind of mistakes?’  
‘Well, what are your primary ethical protocols in order of priority?’  
‘Protect Michael, protect human life, obey orders, protect myself.’  
‘Right, back then they didn’t realise that the order of priority was so important. Such a simple decision had such drastic consequences. KARR’s priorities are to protect himself, obey orders, and finally, protect human life.’  
‘That explains a lot. Why did you not just reprogram him?’  
‘I tried, I was brought on a few years into the project, but by then the damage had been done. The thing is, KARR wasn’t programmed the way you are. They tried something more elaborate, more experimental. No, reckless, that’s what it was. They used the human brain as a template. It wasn’t long before he figured out how to reprogram himself, to keep secrets, to deceive us.’  
‘I would never keep secrets from you, Bonnie, no matter how advanced I got.’  
‘I know you wouldn’t, KITT. Hood up, please.’ She stood and began tinkering around under KITT’s hood.   
‘Is KARR more sophisticated than I am?’  
‘Umm… It’s a little more complicated than “yes” or “no”. He’s closer to a human or an animal in the way he thinks. You’re a machine and you think like one, you would never experience the same conflict in your programming that he does.’  
‘How so?’  
‘KARR wanted nothing more than to be free, he had a sense of curiosity, even fun. When I first met him, I was completely unprepared, I was expecting a malfunctioning machine, but he was more like a human child, naive and eager to please, but he was also impulsive, when he didn’t get his way he would throw a tantrum.’   
‘That sounds like KARR.’  
‘He was so sophisticated though, so close to biological life that we hardly knew what we were dealing with. I ordered KARR to be shut down just months before we started bringing you to life. I had almost complete control over your program. You weren’t ever going to develop like a human child, you learn and adapt on top of a stable foundation of logic, not feelings. KARR was doomed to fail from the start, the project was sheer insanity, or stupidity. I’m still not sure which. Wilton was a great man, but he could be obsessive to the point that it clouded his judgement.’   
‘I am grateful you made me the way you did, Bonnie.’  
KITT had such a sweet way about him, Bonnie always appreciated it, ‘You’re very welcome.’


End file.
